Partner Spotlight: Alexis Landes | SCAPE Architecture
For this month’s partner spotlight, we are thrilled to introduce SCAPE, a New York City-based landscape architecture and urban design practice dedicated to creating positive change through design. Through innovative design, SCAPE fosters deeper connections between people and their environments, shaping landscapes that not only inspire but also serve as tools for education and sustainability.
As architects behind Runway Green’s 3-acre learning ecosystem at Floyd Bennett Field, SCAPE is helping us transform the space into a dynamic hub where students can explore climate solutions, green infrastructure, and hands-on learning. In this Q&A, Alexis Landes, Managing Principal and Partner at SCAPE, shares what excites her most about Runway Green and how the firm’s design approach supports the mission of preparing the next generation for careers in the green economy.
Q. SCAPE is known for its innovative approach to landscape architecture. What excites you most about the Runway Green site plan, and what makes it unique from other projects you’ve worked on?
A. What's exciting about this project and differentiates it from other SCAPE projects is the urban agricultural component of the Runway Green site plan. Over the years, SCAPE has built numerous public parks, remediated landscapes, and promoted responsible land stewardship in a variety of ways, but Runway Green's plan is unique in that the entire site has been visualized as an educational resource with varied learning opportunities embedded in the landscape for the future Launch School and greater Runway Green community. This project is also particularly special because of the extensive interdisciplinary partnerships that contribute to site plan development. Collaboration with Runway Green, The Launch School, Campaign Against Hunger, Outward Bound, National Parks Service, NYC Parks, and our many other partners is rewarding, and has manifested itself in the site design as well, yielding a landscape that meets the diverse needs of a varied community today and in the future.
Q. Runway Green is transforming Floyd Bennett Field into a hub for climate innovation and education. In three words, how would you describe what this project will bring to New Yorkers?
A. Access [to open space], Opportunity [for learning, exploration, and stewardship], Experimentation [Experiential learning in the landscape and outdoors - rather than in the traditional classroom]
Q. Your work is at the intersection of urban design, ecology, and community impact. What role do you see design playing in preparing the next generation for careers in climate and sustainability?
A. Designers are at the forefront of thinking about our built environment. The built environment encompasses how we, as humans, engage with our surroundings, and how design as a profession is a critical pathway towards prioritizing climate solutions in the landscape. Mitigating the effects of climate change has been a driver of the project all along, not just through landscape design, but how we think about education in the landscape through the lens of social resilience. Runway Green provides students and community members with ample physical space for experiential outdoor learning, rather than following traditional modes of learning in a classroom. At SCAPE, we believe that new approaches to learning generate new solutions and ideas for how we can best embrace the built environment we live in. For example, by creating a space for students to learn how to grow food through the on-site urban agriculture program, Runway Green is inherently instilling the next generation of environmentalists with the knowledge of the farm to table life cycle. Through this process they can develop a hands-on knowledge of sustainable food practices and learn techniques to combat the impacts of climate change through real-life experience growing and harvesting food. Teaching students and communities to respect and cherish the landscapes around them hopefully will create lifelong stewards of the earth.
Q. SCAPE’s work often reimagines landscapes as living, evolving ecosystems. What long-term impact do you hope Runway Green will have—not just as a space, but as a model for future urban resilience projects?
A. The nature of the campus itself is a social resilience plan: repurposing land that was once used for infrastructure and transportation needs, into a place for opportunities for people to learn and grow as individuals and as a community. The commitment to create a successful community space at Floyd Bennett Field embodies a model for future resilience projects, one that builds a layered approach, linking urban land and communities, while not privileging one voice over the other. Our “listen first, design together” approach has culminated in a collaborative design plan that serves community needs in an enriched campus for learning, while also privileging a holistic, systems-driven approach to the resilient design.